Ex-firefighter tells Grenfell inquiry: No one had to die
AN ex-volunteer firefighter who escaped Grenfell Tower said there was enough time to have saved all the residents.
Miguel Alves, his wife Fatima and children Tiago, 21, and Ines, 17, fled the blaze before it fully took hold.
He watched from a friend’s home as the inferno engulfed the block of flats, claiming 72 lives.
Mr Alves told the inquiry into the disaster: “It seemed clear the fire brigade should have gone to the top of the tower, knocked on all the doors, and got people out. There was still time.” Mr Alves only became aware of the blaze when the lift he was in opened at the fourth floor, where the fire started in the West London block on June 14 last year. Inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick paid tribute to Ines, who sat her GCSE chemistry the next morning – and got an A.